Media

At 15:56 on 28/10/2017 emergency services were called to the small rural town of John’s River, near Port Macquarie NSW, following a report of an aircraft crash just north of the town. The tail of the aircraft could be seen from the dual-lane highway nearby.

Photo by: George Canciani

Emergency services responded urgently to the scene. Shortly after their arrival it was confirmed that VH-JMW built in 1980, a twin engined, Cessna T310R (c/n 310R1802) had crashed, killing the two occupants on board. There was no fire, however fuel leaking from ruptured fuel tanks was foamed by attending fire units.

VH-JMW (owned by Burley Aircraft) had departed from Toowoomba (YTWB) in Queensland at 13:30, on a published flight plan to Taree (YTRE), NSW, but in fact it’s destination was to be a private airstrip at John’s River, a trip that should take 1 hour 25 minutes.

Photo by: Port Macquarie News

The trip was uneventful with a cruise altitude of 9,400 feet. At 15:51, on descending through 3,000 feet, the aircraft commenced a rapid descent of 1,200 to 1,500 fpm prior to crashing at 15:56. The flight plan supplied by FlightRadar24can be seen below.

The cause of the incident remains uncertain and officers from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are investigating the incident. This page will be updated as detail is reported. A preliminary investigation report is expected to be released in about 30 days but a final report may take up to a year.

Another Donald Trump foreign visit and another awkward handshake – however it was Donald Trump’s exchange with French First Lady Brigitte Macron which has got the world talking.

In a video on the French presidential Facebook account, Mr Trump and Ms Macron extend their hands to one another, fumbling to make contact, before they embrace for a traditional kiss on each cheek…..then they then ungracefully hold hands, for what seemed to be an inordinately long time.

But it was a later comment from Donald Trump at the high-level meeting in Paris, that almost overshadowing what appeared to be early signs of Mr Trump again rethinking his attitude to the Paris Accord.

As Mr Trump, Mr Macron and their wives toured the museums at Les Invalides, the US President turned to the French First Lady and said: “You’re in such good shape.”

He repeated the observation to the French president before turning back to the French first lady, and remarking: “Beautiful.”

Watch CNN’s report of the greeting

Ms Macron was her husband’s former high school teacher and their relationship has drawn international attention because of their age difference – Ms Macron is 64, while her husband is 39.

Does age really matter in good relationship?

The comments have been denounced in some circles as sexist, noting that the Macrons’ age difference is similar to that of Donald and Melania Trump.

The pair has been seen as having a difficult chemistry. Photo: AAP

Trump hints at change of heart on Paris Accord

More substantively, Mr Trump appeared to be holding the door open to a reversal of his decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord, but did not say what he would need in return to persuade him to do so.

Mr Trump, who has made few friends in Europe with his rejection of the 2015 Paris agreement and his “America First” trade stance, met Mr Macron in Paris on Thursday as both leaders sought common ground to reset an awkward relationship.

“Something could happen with respect to the Paris accords, let’s see what happens,” Mr Trump told a news conference. “If it happens, that will be wonderful, and if it doesn’t, that’ll be OK too.”

Mr Trump has said the Paris accord is soft on leading polluters like China and India, putting US industry at risk.

“There is no sudden and unexpected change today, otherwise we would have announced it, but there is the shared intention to continue discussing these issues,” the French president added.

Mr Trump and Mr Macron’s relationship got off to a bumpy start, but both have an incentive to improve relations – Mr Macron hopes to elevate France’s role in global affairs, and Mr Trump, seemingly isolated among world leaders, needs a friend overseas.

The nature of their greeting was so highly anticipated because of the long, white-knuckled handshake between the two leaders in Brussels in May in which Mr Macron held on firmly and appeared to try and pull Mr Trump’s towards him.

“My handshake with him, it’s not innocent,” Mr Macron said some days later. “It’s not the alpha and the omega of politics, but a moment of truth.”

A day after that, Mr Macron performed a body swerve away from Mr Trump as he approached a group of leaders, and instead picked out German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Mr Trump’s handshakes have become closely observed moments in his diplomatic interactions. When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the White House early this year, their handshake lasted for an uncomfortable 20 seconds, with Mr Abe appearing to try and break off several times.

And during his March meeting with Ms Merkel, Mr Trump appeared to refuse to shake her hand despite the pleas of media onlookers.

Cardinal Pell is expected to be charged with sexual offences. Photo: AAP

Victoria Police have charged Cardinal George Pell with multiple serious sexual offences and have ordered him to appear in court next month.

Police confirmed Thursday that Australia’s most senior Catholic clergyman in the Vatican was summonsed to face charges over alleged historical child sex offences.

“The charges were today served on Cardinal Pell’s legal representatives in Melbourne and they have been lodged also at the Melbourne Magistrates Court,” Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton told a media conference.

The charges will send shockwaves through the Catholic Church both in Australia and around the world.

Cardinal Pell is the Vatican’s finance chief and considered the third most powerful person in the Catholic Church.

Australia has no extradition treaty with the Vatican, but Cardinal Pell is expected to return to fight the charges.

He previously refused to return to Australia to front the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in 2016, citing illness.

He instead appeared via video link from Rome to refute allegations he helped cover-up abuse by other members of the clergy.

Deputy Commissioner Patton said police received advice from the Department of Public Prosecutions regarding the investigation in May.Three detectives from the Victoria Police Sano Taskforce travelled to Rome to interview Cardinal Pell about the allegations last October.

“Cardinal Pell has been treated the same as anyone else in this investigation,” he said.

“It is important to note that none of the allegations that have been made against Cardinal Pell have been tested in any court yet.

“Cardinal Pell, like any other defendant, has a right to due process and so therefore it is important that the process is allowed to run its natural course.”

The allegations of sexual assault reportedly were made by two men now aged in their 40s, from Cardinal Pell’s home town of Ballarat.

The men said Cardinal Pell, then a parish priest, touched them inappropriately in the summer of 1978-79, when he was playing a throwing game with them at the city’s pool.

The ABC’s 7.30 program aired the details of the sexual abuse allegations against Cardinal Pell last year.

The Cardinal has vehemently denied the allegations, accusing the ABC of mounting a smear campaign against him and saying the broadcaster had “no licence to destroy the reputation of innocent people”.

He again denied any wrongdoing in July upon news he was being investigated

As a category 4 cyclone crosses the Queensland coast with winds of up to 263kmh causing destruction in several towns along the coast, the attending media, all vying to outdo each other with a scoop are heard to say:

“Is there any wind?”

“Is there any rain?”

“How secure is your home?”

“How many cyclones have you lived through?”

Reporters telling people to remain inside their houses while they remain outside in the wind and weather of the category 4 cyclone with no personal protective equipment!

Has all the other news disappeared?

Have you experienced anything like this before? “No, we are from Norway!”

Phone records and intercepted calls show that members of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and other Trump associates repeatedly contacted with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election, the New York Times reports.

US law enforcement and intelligence agencies intercepted the communications around the same time they were discovering evidence that Russia was trying to disrupt the presidential election by hacking into the Democratic National Committee, three of the officials said, according to the Times.

The intelligence agencies then sought to learn whether the Trump campaign was colluding with the Russians on the hacking or other efforts to influence the election, the newspaper said.

“Surely, these are grounds to call Trump’s election as president into question?

The officials interviewed in recent weeks said they had seen no evidence of such cooperation so far, it said.

However, the intercepts alarmed US intelligence and law enforcement agencies, in part because of the amount of contact that was occurring while Mr Trump was speaking glowingly about Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The intercepted calls are different from the wiretapped conversations last year between Michael Flynn, Mr Trump’s former national security adviser, and Sergei Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, the Times said.

Michael Flynn had earlier assured Vice-President Mike Pence that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian envoy.

During those calls, the two men discussed sanctions that the Obama administration imposed on Russia in December.

Mr Flynn misled the White House about those calls and was asked to resignon Monday night.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for comment on the Times story.

On the Russian side, the contacts also included members of the Russian government outside of the intelligence services, the officials reportedly said.

All of the current and former officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because the continuing investigation is classified.

The officials said that one of the advisers picked up on the calls was Paul Manafort, who was Mr Trump’s campaign chairman for several months in 2016 and had worked as a political consultant in Russia and the Ukraine.

The officials declined to identify the other Trump associates on the calls.

Unsanctioned, unofficial contact with another country may be construed as treasonous?

The call logs and intercepted communications are part of a larger trove of information that the FBI is sifting through as it investigates the links between Mr Trump’s associates and the Russian government, as well as the DNC hack, according to federal law enforcement officials.

As part of its inquiry, the FBI has obtained banking and travel records and conducted interviews, the officials said.

Mr Manafort, who has not been charged with any crimes, dismissed the accounts of the US officials in a telephone interview on Tuesday.

“This is absurd,” he told the Times. “I have no idea what this is referring to. I have never knowingly spoken to Russian intelligence officers, and I have never been involved with anything to do with the Russian government or the Putin administration or any other issues under investigation today.”

“It’s not like these people wear badges that say, ‘I’m a Russian intelligence officer’,” he added.

The recent arrest of an Australian 60 Minutes TV crew in Lebanon, has had (Australian) media outlets outraged that a TV crew could be arrested for reporting the news.

What they gloss over in their outrage is that the crew were filming a kidnapping and abduction of two children of an Australian woman who was in Beirut with their Lebanese father. True, the father had failed to return the children after an access visit, but still a kidnap and abduction has occurred.

The TV crew was not just there filming the abduction. No, it is alleged that the 60 Minutes producers had actually financed the abduction by hiring a professional company to carry out the grab. it is alleged that AU$115,000 was paid by Channel 9.

That makes the TV crew complicit in the action, and an accessory to kidnapping and abduction, assault and conspiracy, all serious crime in the Lebanon.

The mother and the TV crew could find themselves in detention in Lebanon for some time to come.

If found guilty, they could face up to 20 years in jail.

Dr Denis Muller, a media ethics expert at University of Melbourne, believes Channel 9 did the story because they thought it would “rate its socks off”.

“An Australian mum was rescuing children, bringing them back to a great life in Australia, that’s what it was all about,” he said.

“I can’t imagine Channel 9 looked into the risk and I can’t imagine they would have knowingly put their staff at risk like this”. But it appears they did just that.

However, the reporter at the heart of the issue, Tara Brown, has maintained a level of integrity stating, “I cannot talk, I don’t want to jeopardise anything. It has been fortifying to get messages of support, support from my family, friends and colleagues. I am being treated extremely well and the other women here are incredibly generous and kind.”

Will this action receive unbiased reporting from the Australian media?

This Is Me

George Brown is a decorated soldier and health professional and 40 year veteran in the field of emergency nursing and paramedical practice, both military and civilian areas. He has senior management positions in the delivery of paramedical services. Opinions expressed in these columns are solely those of the author and should not be construed as being those of any organization to which he may be connected.

He was born in the UK of Scottish ancestry from Aberdeen and a member of the Clan MacDougall. He is a member of the Macedonian community in Newcastle, and speaks fluent Macedonian. While this may seem a contradiction, it is his wife who is Macedonian, and as a result he embraced the Macedonian language and the Orthodox faith.

His interests include aviation and digital photography, and he always enjoys the opportunity to combine the two. Navigate to his Flickr site to see recent additions to his photo library.